Jaipur : Rajasthan Royals' loss to Gujarat Titans on Friday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 turned out to be their joint-biggest defeat in Jaipur in terms of the number of balls remaining.
Rajasthan elected to bat first and their decision turned out to haunt them as they struggled to put up a par total on the scoreboard and barely managed to score 118.
Gujarat chased down the target of 119 with 37 balls to spare. Before this defeat, Rajasthan were humiliated by Kolkata Knight Riders in front of their home crowd in 2019. KKR cruised through the second innings as they chased down the target of 140 with 37 balls to spare.
Before KKR, Delhi Capitals held the record of handing RR the worst defeat in their home stadium as DC managed to chase down the target of 142 with 28 balls to spare in 2012.
If Rajasthan Royals ended up on the winning side they could have claimed the top spot instead of Gujarat Titans. However, the deadly spin duo from Afghanistan orchestrated their downfall.
While opting to bat first backfired on Rajasthan as they lost early wickets. Key batter Jos Buttler was dismissed by GT skipper Hardik Pandya in the 2nd over. Jos Buttler scored just eight runs off six balls.
Already jolted by the loss of an early wicket, RR received another blow after in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal was run out amid the chaos. He scored 14 runs off 11 balls.
At the end of the powerplay, RR crossed the 50-run mark by losing two crucial wickets.
Joshua Little took skipped Sanju Samson's wicket who scored 30 off 20 balls.
In the 8th over, Rashid Khan picked up the wicket of R Ashwin, who was batting at 2 off 6 balls.
Devdutt Padikkal continued to disappoint as he got out of the bowling of Noor Ahmad. In the 14th over, Noor struck again, dismissing Dhruv Jurel for 9 off 8 balls.
Shimron Hetmyer became the target of Rashid Khan's spin in the 15th over. He scored just 7 off 13 balls.
RR crawled to the 100-run mark in 15 overs.
Mohammed Shami also got himself in the wickets column after castling Trent Boult for 15 off 11 balls.
After Adam Zampa returned to the dugout after being run out by Abhinav Manohar, RR posted a low score of 118, bundling out in 17.5 overs.
GT batters made their intentions clear from the very first ball as they chased down the target comfortably and moved to the top spot of the table.
